Sunday, September 20, 2015

Lampwork Tools and Toys - It's Time To Play !

It was a really great week at the torch last week - finally ! Yes, it's been cool enough, at least in the mornings, I can get back to doing what I truly love to do - make beads ! And I sure did. Had a blast. Got some new tools and toys to work/play with which made it all the more fun. New stuff requires learning to use the item and LOTS of practice. With practice comes many failures which end up in the water can. lol ! So if I made 50 beads, probably half ended up "canned". lol ! That's perfectly fine with me. It gets me to that goal of the bead being well done. :) So what did I get ? A few tools that will help in many ways - these for example. PHOTO #1 is of what they call "shaping tools" mainly for sculpting but one can find other uses as needed. I got mine at Harbor Freight (actual store). Pretty inexpensive really considering all that can be done with them. PHOTO #2 - I also got a new rock tumbler. That can be used to tumble glass beads to give them that gorgeous matte finish without using chemicals. Mix it up with water, silicone carbide (grit), some glass beads like pony beads and a drop or two of liquid dish soap and off you go ! PHOTO #3 - below the tumbler shows just one set beads I tumbled in my new tumbler. You can tumble as many or as few beads as you want but I prefer more so when I do want etched beads, I'll wait until I have a nice, large group. :) I also got new filters for my face mask. It is all about safety afterall. While this art/craft is a lot of fun, it requires extreme caution at all times. You are dealing with gas + oxygen = fire and fumes. Nasty, deadly fumes. Along with a powerful ventilation system, a gas mask is a must - at least for me. I use a 1/2 mask which is much more comfortable. Ok so on to the fun stuff ! lol ! I got a few new toys to play with too ! :) Some new bead rollers which are in the photo's below. I forgot to mention - I did "borrow" all of the photo's you see here EXCEPT my beads. :) Anyway, these are the first bead rollers I've purchased in a very long time. Probably years. Am having fun with them ! You can see the website address to Donna's online shop - CG Beads in those photo's. Her bead rollers are great, the original bead rollers and they are made right here in the USA ! Anyway, I had the last bead roller in the photo when it first came out years ago but sold it because at the time I was not into making sets much. So of course I had to buy another one. lol ! It would seem I'm into making sets now. lol ! Anyway, with all these new bead rollers comes a lot of practice using them. Sometimes it's easy - sometimes not so much. The key - learn how much glass is needed. If you start out with the smallest mold and add too much glass, at least you can go to the next size up. :) PPP is all it takes. Oh and your imagination of course. The last photo is of just one little set I made using the first mold called Baroque. I really do LOVE this shape ! Just so much fun ! I rarely make anything purple but gotta say, I like this little set. More to come of this shape to be sure.Well, that's all for today. Thanks so much for coming by. I hope you come back again soon ! Check out my facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/AllMyBeads for all the latest including news about my Etsy shop.